Muskie report and knowing when to shut up.

[SlowPoke]

This was a last minute trip that seemed doomed from the word go.

 

My wife's uncle Ronnie from Sudbury was visiting his son a block away from us. He wanted to look at an old boat I have that I was thinking of restoring but offered it to him for his camp in Espanola if he was interested. A little mis-communication took place as my wife thought he wanted to look at my big boat in the driveway. Long story short, he walks over expecting to see a vintage 15' Starcraft and there's a new 19.5' Starcraft in the driveway. He calls my wife back at work and says "I don't think this is the boat Brian was offering me" lol

 

Calls back and forth, I pick up Ronnie and take him to my storage lot to see the little boat.

 

Ronnie didn't have plans for today so I asked him to go fishing with me. He was quite excited because he's had a bad year health-wise and hadn't been out more than two or three time times all year. This is a man that has been fishing over 60 years and for the last 5 or 6 flips a coin to decide if he's going to golf or fish that day. Need less to say< Ronnie needed a day on the water.

 

A few hours after I dropped him off from looking at the little boat I get a call. "Brian, I hate to do this but I just fell and banged my eye on a chair and messed up my shoulder pretty good. I don't think I can make it tomorrow." Most people would show concern for a man of 72 years taking a fall but I know Ronnie, a pretty tough bugger. I told him "a black eye won't bother me at all and I can reel in the fish for you if your shoulder is that bad." He had a laugh at that and then I told him we could do it Sunday if he was feeling better.

 

An hour or so later he calls me back and says "Brian, if we wait until Sunday I might fall again and break a hip. Let's go in the morning. See you at 5"

 

At precisely 4:36 AM my wife says "It's 4:36". I said something I can't repeat here and jumped out of bed! I had been up for 27 hours and I guess I needed more than 6 hours sleep. Scramble, panic, rush around, go to tilt the motor on the boat and the battery is dead. Screw it, head over to Ronnie's son's place, pick him up at 5 and come back for the boat. I put a set of jumpers on the battery and get the motor tilted up and away we go. I had left an auxiliary power switch on for a week as it turns out.

 

I thought we'd have enough gas to get to Bloomfield Road in Chatham but we ran with the cover off the boat and used a lot more gas than I thought we would. I didn't think I was going to make it so I pulled off at a truck stop on the way. Turns out the truck stop is open but the gas bar is closed. Fortunately, the attendant was there and she said she could turn on the pump for me and do a cash sale. I handed her a fifty and expressed my appreciation. Off we go.

 

We get to the launch and quickly get the boat in the water.... almost. Forgot to unhook the safety chain. I normally forget to put it on, not take it off! Winch the boat back in a couple inches, unhook the safety and we're golden. Hook up the jumper cables to the kicker battery and off we go.

 

It was just one of those days. If anything could go wrong, it did but Ronnie was just happy to get out and it was such a nice morning. We trolled out of the river and met up with Dax (pigeontroller) near the mouth. It was nice to see him again and hopefully we'll hook up some day in the same boat. We exchanged some info and phone numbers and blasted off for the fishing grounds.

 

My last two LSC visits had been solo adventures and I was skunked checking out new spots. With Ronnie in the boat, I wanted to fish known areas with a higher probability of hooking up. Even the prime spots are no guarantee but today paid off.

 

I was showing Ronnie all the bells and whistles on the Lowrance HDS and explaining that the size of the arch isn't necessarily an indication of the size of a fish. A classic arch rolls across the screen and I said "that's definitely a fish, we'll know in a minute if it's a big fish or a small one." ZZZzzzzziiiiiinggggg! The Super Shad rod goes off. I grabbed the rod, set the hook and handed off to Ronnie "That was a small fish". (I love it when you call it on the screen and the fish actually hits!) Ronnie takes the rod and fights it like a pro. A bit of a screamer and a bunch of head shakes... and I'm talking about Ronnie! He was having a blast! It was a mid 30" fish and normally I'd just unhook it at the side of the boat but Ronnie said it was the biggest muskie he'd ever caught. I grabbed the net and he got his camera ready. He took it out of the net for picture and tried to hold it over the side for a release. The sides are a little high on my boat for Ronnie and I tried to take over but we lost it and it wasn't going down. We circled around and re-netted it for the livewell. Ronnie nursed it in the livewell while I got back on course and deployed the rods. I took over for a bit and then we tried another release. It stayed upright but didn't go down so we fished the area for a bit keeping an eye on it. About 20-30 minutes since taking the hooks out at this point and it still wasn't going down. What do you do? Too small to keep it legally so we'll keep our fingers crossed for that one. I mentioned to Ronnie that that was a small fish by LSC standards and hopefully we'll get him a good one.

 

Not long afterwards, the 10" Jake rod goes off. Anybody that has fished with me knows what lure I'm talking about. That lure had a bad year in 2012 but its seen probably 30 fish prior to last year. I had expressed this to Ronnie and that I hadn't given up on it. That lure sees the water every time out. Sometimes all day but last year maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Hearing that rod go off was more than just the 'fish-on' kind of pleasure, it was more like an 'I'm baaack' statement! It was a solid rip and I knew it was an upgrade from Ronnie's PB from a few moments ago. I grabbed the rod, set the hook and drag and handed it off. Again, Ronnie was in his glory. His eye injury from the night before and sore shoulder was the last thing on his mind, he was having the time of his life. It was another small-ish fish by LSC standards but a trophy in his eyes. It had donned on me at this point that I just need to shut up about being a small fish or "hopefully we'll get something better". This was his second personal best moment of the day and I started sharing in his excitement. A bit of a botched net job on my behalf with the hooks catching the net but I managed to get 'er done. Ronnie got his camera ready and lifted it out for a picture. I asked him to set it back in the net because it was easier for me to reach over the side for the release. This one took a few minutes but ended up kicking out of my grasp and disappearing out of sight. I feel pretty good about that release; 6-7' of visibility and it went down out of sight.

 

Feeling pretty good about now. I like to say "any day muskie fishing is a good day. When you get one, it's a great day." Now we're 2 for 2.

 

We took a hit on a Handlebarz Double 10. The same pattern Mike has been slamming them with, Disco Inferno. Don't ask me what or how big it was because it snapped my 80lb fluoro leader right in the middle. There must have been a nick in it because I just refuse to believe a fish could bite down on a leader 2' up from the lure! I told Mike his Handlebarz float just as well as his GoPro camara

 

Hit number three came on the Super Shad again. Bigger than the first two but still a low 40's fish. I handed it off to Ronnie and by this time it was pretty routine. We already had some pictures so asked asked if we could just let this one off at the side of the boat. That's when things went horribly wrong. One of the rods I cleared was leaning over the side of the boat and the lure was in the water by an inch or two. Well don't we get a fish on... about an 8 lb decayed carp. It probably would have went 12 lbs but part of it had rotted off. I was prepared to cut the line and lose a lure rather than deal with the carp-cus but fortunately a sharp tug on the line tore through the white flaking heap of stink.

 

Hit number four was back on the Jake. Nice to see a few more teeth marks into that already furry, torn up mold of plastic glory! Ronnie wouldn't take the rod on this one and it felt pretty good to hang onto a lively stick once again. Don't get me wrong, deploying rods and clearing weeds a thousand times is nothing short of breathtaking but actually reeling in a fish was a nice change A quick release at the side of the boat and a pretty good splash in the face for my efforts. Pretty refreshing splash too, it was almost noon and warming up pretty good.

 

That would be it for the day. Nothing big but one of the best days I've had on the boat. Ever.

 

In sixty plus years of fishing, Ronnie had never caught anything that big or experienced that type of fishing. I learned to shut up about small fish and let him enjoy every minute of it. We have it pretty good on Lake St. Clair; a good muskie population and an opportunity to land some true trophy fish. As cowanjo stated in Mike's post "a lot of people would like a day of teenagers."

http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=71225

[aplumma]

Glad you all had a good time Brian.

 

 

Art

[Squid]

I was surprised to read that you had a super shad on for bait when I thought you ran only Jakes LOL.

[spincast]

great report - I can see it now. "Nope, that's just a small fish, I can tell by the sound of the reel" Way to go showing the man a great day

[Moosebunk]

Ronnie takes the rod and fights it like a pro. A bit of a screamer and a bunch of head shakes... and I'm talking about Ronnie!

 

 

Funny and true story Brian. Sometimes just takes others to put your own fishing into a right perspective.

 

Good on ya!

[Bernie]

Love the story Brian.
Good for you taking him out for the day.

Edited August 28, 2013 by Bernie

[Handlebarz]

Good time to put nice numbers in the boat keep him busy. Was glad to hear Saturday that he was going to make it out. The winds were also in our favor for morning fishing